Momentum & Actual Housing For the Most Vulnerable & Chronically Homeless Begins in Nashville - Finally

Anyone who has worked in the homeless services arena in the Nashville Tennessee area knows the difficulties we've faced in providing housing to our homeless population.

Seven years ago, when Nashville's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness was introduced, many in the city had high hopes for progress and were fully committed to the work required to make it so.

Over the next several years, a series of missteps, coupled with an ineffective Executive Director of the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission, created a number of problems that caused disinterest and dwindling support from the larger community and distrust and disgust within the homeless community.

Will Connelly sharing VI results

In the winter of 2013, a new director was hired. Will Connelly came to the role with strong credentials and a history of previous accomplishments in homeless services already under his belt. Will also had several key advantages. Nashville is his home, he's worked directly on the streets of our community and managed a very successful SOAR program before leaving the area to apply his skills and training expertise on a national level. Will knows all the players in Nashville, and he is well-liked and well-respected by most in both the homeless and the larger communities.

Perhaps the biggest plus to having Will's expertise at the helm is he understands that if you want to end homelessness, you've got to put people in housing. 

Will came into the role and quickly worked to refocus the Commission, re-ignite the commitments and repair the damage caused by the previous director's tenure.

In less than six months, Will has done a stellar job in accomplishing all of the above.

Yesterday, Will announced the results of the How's Nashville campaign's Registry Week, in which teams of volunteers, using the Vulnerability Index, surveyed 469 members of the Nashville homeless community to identify the most vulnerable individuals on our streets.

Will Connelly & Ingrid McIntyre raise much needed funds

After providing some brief statistics related to the  findings of the survey, the event then became a fundraiser. Ingrid McIntyre, Executive Director of Open Table, led the effort to raise much needed funds, and $36,000 was raised and will be added to the $50,000 pot of money the Nashville Metropolitan Homelessness Commission has set aside to support moving 200 of our most vulnerable homeless population into housing in the next 100 days. It's an ambitious but certainly doable effort, and it provides important momentum for a very difficult task; housing the remaining 2,000+ people on our streets who continue to experience homelessness.
While we are riding high at the moment on a wave of goodwill and collaboration, significant challenges remain, and we must be careful here to manage expectations.  Ending homelessness is expensive, no matter how one approaches it.  There is not often a lot of public support to pay for folks who are often broad-brush painted with ignorant and erroneous assumptions about the causes of homelessness.  Our city is just beginning to break down silos of service provision and "re-purpose" the funding that arrives in our community with the goal of ending homelessness through rapid rehousing and Housing First efforts. 

We continue to battle with more erroneous assumptions about these programs, and others that are emerging as best or promising practices to end homelessness.  We have a shortage of staff, of services, and of resources that we must address if we are to sustain the efforts Will and the Commission have initiated. 

Will's front end work with the How's Nashville campaign will bring many challenges related to sustainability in the coming months and years  - both in keeping our folks housed and in ensuring the necessary resources remain available.  Will cannot overcome them on his own, and as a Commissioner, I am dedicated to supporting him and joining our effort to overcome every obstacle and barrier thrown in our path. I'm hoping that both the Commission and the community begin thinking with the needed foresight to address these important and often difficult to resolve challenges.  We've got the experts, we've got the resolve, and we've got a solid start. Do we have the fortitude and the tenacity to see it through? 

"Permanent" campsite, Tent City, Nashville, TN

I believe we do and it is time for Nashville to become proactive, rather than reactive, in ending homelessness in our city.  Our homeless population has waited a very long time for results.  Will has laid the foundation for the those results and it is up to all of us to continue the construction. 

Together, we can and will end homelessness in Nashville.

Homelessness Commission hopes to house 200 this summer

For decades Frank Clements has slept on benches and sidewalks. On Tuesday, the formerly homeless man had a brand-new mattress and an apartment, his first home in 35 years.
A “Welcome Home” banner was hanging in the window of the modest studio in Metro Manor on Fifth Avenue North. The 66-year-old was speechless.

“I don’t know how to act,” he said, blinking back tears. “I’ve been sleeping under those trees so long.”

Clements was one of 469 people surveyed last week as part of the How’s Nashville campaign, which aims to connect the most needy people living on Nashville’s streets with housing and other services.

The Metropolitan Homeless Commission hopes to house 200 of the most vulnerable people surveyed in the next 100 days. Clements was one of the first.

Commission director Will Connelly said it will take $1,000 to place each person in housing. Funding got a jump start Tuesday, when several individuals and groups pledged to chip away at the $200,000 goal.

Several partner organizations are joining with the commission to help connect homeless people with housing and resources. Some private landlords are donating rooms and lowering the rent.

Clements was deemed the most vulnerable person out of 469 people surveyed. The Vietnam veteran has battled cancer, heart and kidney disease and likely has mental health issues, according to the commission.

Robert McMurty, 48, who lived in a trailer park that was destroyed in the May 2010 floods, got an apartment down the hall from Clements Tuesday. He has been homeless for three years, and suffers from HIV/AIDS, cancer, asthma, kidney disease, Hepatitis C and a brain injury, according to the commission.

Megan Barry, a Metro councilwoman and a member of the homelessness commission, called the scope of the campaign “revolutionary for Nashville.”

Barry was undaunted the lofty price tag the initiative carried. She pointed to the dozens of donors who stepped up during the official How’s Nashville launch on Tuesday.

“That’s so typical of Nashvillians,” she said. “They want to help, and all you have to do is ask.”